DAYBREAKERS, ZOMBIELAND and SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD all Head to Fantastic Fest!

The second wave of titles for this year’s Fantastic Fest are ravaging the interwebs and the Twitters and I couldn’t be more excited. Not only will this be my first real film festival (I’m not counting the Chicago International Film Festival), but it’ll be my first Fantastic Fest. From everything I’m hearing, that’s like having your hymen broken by King Kong. Say it’s going to leave an impression is an understatement.

Click here to remember the past to see the first wave of titles and read on for the second batch of features with further details at the official Fantastic Fest Blog. Considering there’s still a third list of titles waiting in the wings, I think I may have to upgrade the above analogy from having sex with King Kong to getting raped by the entire girth of that asteroid worm that tried to eat the Millennium Falcon in EMPIRE STRIKES BACK.

Second Wave of Fantastic Fest Features Announced

We are proud to announce the next 20 titles in the 5th edition of Fantastic Fest. Subscribe to the Fantastic Fest Blog or Twitter Feed for all of the latest updates. We will be announcing the 3rd wave of titles and the Fantastic Fest schedule on September 7. You can view photos, watch trailers and find more information at www.fantasticfest.com.

Daybreakers (dir. Michael Spierig & Peter Spierig, 2009, USA)
The year is 2019. A mysterious plague has swept over the earth, transforming the majority of the world’s population into vampires. Humans are now an endangered, second-class species – forced into hiding as they are hunted and farmed for vampire consumption to the brink of extinction. It’s all up to Edward Dalton, a vampire researcher who refuses to feed on human blood, to perfect a blood substitute that might sustain vampires and spare the few remaining humans.

Doghouse
(dir. Jake West, 2009, UK)
North American Premiere
Kicked out of the house and recently served with divorce papers, Vince (Stephen Graham, SNATCH) is at a low point in his life. In an effort to rally their best mate’s spirits, his crew rents a charter bus for a country retreat of heavy drinking and womanizing. The only problem is that the women in their idyllic country hideaway have been infested with the zombie plague, eaten every man in town and are now hungry for seconds.

World Premiere
(dir. Ben Wheatley, 2009, UK)
Down Terrace is a darkly comedic drama from Britain that follows the daily travails of a dysfunctional family of crooks trying to keep their business from falling apart.

A cold-blooded killer has singled out a mild-mannered, recently widowed man and is forcing him, under threat of harm to his young daughter, to participate in his gruesome activities. The indecisive father sinks deeper and more helplessly into the clutches of the ruthless killer – a man most definitely on a mission.

The battle along the Russian-German front of WWII has ground to a halt. Desperate to regain momentum the Nazi forces have turned to their occult division to raise the spirits of
their dead ancestors to fight on their behalf. Russia’s only hope lies in the psychic abilities of a
teenage girl.

Hard Revenge, Milly: Bloody Battle
Regional Premiere
(dir. Takanori Tsujimoto, 2009, Japan)
In a near-future post-apocalyptic bombed-out shell of Japan, lawless gangs roam the outskirts of the city, raping and pillaging with impunity. Milly, left for dead by a particularly
vicious gang, literally picks up the (her) pieces, bonds them with some truly inventive bio-weaponry and takes bloody revenge, one lowlife at a time.

Human Centipede
North American Premiere
(dir. Tom Six, 2009, Netherlands/UK)
Dr. Heiter (Dieter Laser), a leering, sepulchral surgeon from Germany whose specialty is separating Siamese twins, evolves his craft by sewing together living beings together at the “mucous-cutaneous zone” (guess) in order to create Siamese triplets with a single digestive system.

After just embarking on a roadtrip, six friends stop to pick up a girl who has just been robbed and return her to her home at the end of an isolated forest. Their act of kindness ends up being repaid by a night of unspeakable horror and butchery.

The dynamic duo of Chile, Marko Zaror and Ernesto Diaz Espinoza, are returning to Austin with the World Premiere of their new action thriller MANDRILL. Marko Zaror plays MANDRILL, a young hitman who will not relent until he has exacted bloody revenge on the man who killed his mother many years ago.

What if the global oil shortage were to force civilization underground? What if the subway system were expanded to connect all the major cities of Europe? What if the voices in your head were real and the Powers That Be using transmitters hidden in shampoo to monitor your every word and action? It’s only paranoia if it’s not true …

Smash Cut
(dir. Lee Demarbre, 2009, Canada)
U.S. Premiere
When his latest film is panned for its sub-par effects work, veteran grindhouse filmmaker Able Whitman (David Hess, LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT, HOUSE ON THE EDGE OF THE PARK) is struck with inspiration: the most realistic gore effects will come from actual
dismemberment and corpses!

Survival of the Dead
U.S. Premiere
(dir. George A. Romero, 2009, US/Canada)
George Romero returns to the Alamo Drafthouse cinema for the U.S. premiere of his latest zombie opus. The action centers on two warring clans of Plum Island; one wants to kill every zombie on the island, the other tries to protect their undead family members until a cure for “zombieism” is found.

Sweet Karma
US Premiere
(dir. Andrew Thomas Hunt, 2009, Canada)
When her sister disappears without a trace – the apparent victim in a Russian prostitution ring in Toronto – a shy, beautiful, mute woman sets off on a bloody, intercontinental
trail of revenge.

Based on a true story, TERRIBLY HAPPY follows a young Copenhagen cop who is exiled to a provincial Jutland town after suffering a nervous collapse. The town and its “code” soon prove to be much more complex and challenging – not to mention much more deadly – than the big city beat.

Van Diemen’s Land
U.S. Premiere
(dir. Jonathan Auf Der Heide, 2009, Australia)
When their guard is killed en route to prison in 19th-century Tasmania, eight prisoners escape through the dense rain forest. Their poorly-conceived escape plans crumble,
food runs out and the gang of prisoners engages in power struggles, psychological games and cannibalism in order to survive. Based on the true-life story of Australian prisoner Alexander Pearce.

A reimagining of the long-running Anime TV show, Miike’s YATTERMAN is a massive dayglo blast that hits your brain like a bullet train and kickstarts your pleasure centers.

Yesterday
Regional Premiere
(Rob Grant, 2009, Canada)When a strange flulike virus starts killing people and turning them into flesh-eating zombies, an unlikely group of guys band together, grab an SUV and head for the woods to wait out the epidemic. Shot in 16mm on a micro-budget of $25,000, YESTERDAY transcends its resources, filling every scene with great practical effects, car crashes, ballistics and, most importantly, cracklingly sharp dramatic and comedic performances by every single principal cast member.

Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) is a big wuss – but when you’re afraid of being eaten by zombies, fear can keep you alive. Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) is an AK-totin’, zombie-slayin’ badass whose single determination is to get the last Twinkie on earth.

Keep in mind that unless they are doing away with the secret screenings there will probably be somewhere between 3 to 5 titles that go unannounced until showtime. If they are doing secret screenings I’m surprised that all 3 titles mentioned in the header are NOT secret.

As am I. If they are going to do secret screenings, I’m going to be anxious to see what they have in store that’s at least on par with the announcement of something like Daybreakers. Not that it was far-fetched that Daybreakers would be on the roster, it’s just something that would typically have gone unannounced and pegged as a secret screening.

Uh, Adam, I don’t think THE HOBBIT has filmed the chocolate mountain scene yet, HARRY POTTER: TDH is still being closed captioned into English from its native Portuguese, and Channing Tatum JUST signed on for SIN CITY 3. How the heck do you expect these movies to be ready in time?

Uh, Brian, obviously you are unaware of the magical powers of Fantastic Fest. A place where an Uwe Boll Q&A is awesome, where a red-headed drinker will ask Paul Rudd about a three-way with Elizabeth Banks, & Mel Gibson will show up with an unfinished film after being arrested. You think the fact that the films I mentioned haven’t even started production is a reason they’d be omitted? Geez, sometimes you can be sooooo ignorant. Pfffft.

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